Clockwise from top left: Work on the Deep Rock Tunnel below Indianapolis; Kevin at the bottom of a stone quarry; Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, WA;  Photos from Bank of America Stadium (note their very nice grass); Kevin at the Pipe Creek, Jr. dig site; Kevin awaiting the blasting to happen on the East End Tunnel project in Louisville before proceeding into the tunnel for photos.

November 2016 marks the 20^th anniversary of the business I started back in 1996. I have been reflecting upon some of the great experiences I have had over the past two decades. By all appearances, running a small business out of my office in downtown Noblesville, Indiana, may seem rather uneventful. Au contraire! It may not be the life and times of a rock star, but I have been to some very unusual places and have experienced some interesting people in many of those places. I have assembled a compilation of some of these experiences, all centered around photo shoots we have done in the past two decades.

Hurricane Floyd, North Carolina - 1999

One of our earliest customers was the insurance publication, Rough Notes. We did a lot of traveling around the country getting photos to illustrate the stories their editors wrote about the insurance business. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd came ashore in North Carolina and we were sent to a small coastal city to follow an insurance agent as he met with property and casualty clients in the aftermath of the storm. All I remember was the highway away from the coast was packed with cars, but our side of the highway – heading to the damaged area – was only traveled by myself, my photographer, and the National Guard.

Pipe Creek Jr. fossil dig site

In 2005, we were invited to visit and photograph the Pipe Creek Jr. fossil site in Grant County, Indiana. Pipe Creek Jr. is a limestone quarry. While moving rock 30 feet below the surface, a sink hole was discovered that had filled up with ancient animal bones that dated prior to the Ice Age! Paleontologists from IPFW and the Indiana State Museum came to the site with dozens of museum staff members, students, and volunteers with an interest in finding fossils, came to the site to sift through the dirt and rocks. They found over 3,000 animal bones dating from a time period that had only one other such find east of the Mississippi River!

Safeco annual meeting

In 1997, we were sent to the Seattle headquarters of Safeco Insurance to photograph their top management. Safeco had just made a very bold move when they bought out a couple of other insurance companies to make them one of the largest domestic insurers. We set up in a room with an adjoining door. I was told by Roger Eigsti, Safeco’s CEO, to step into the next room and interrupt his meeting when we were ready for him and his team. When the time came, I walked in to find a very contentious meeting of the Safeco Board! There were at least 100 Armani suits in the room when I walked in and told the guys leading the meeting we were ready. They graciously put the board meeting on hold until we had our photos.

Carolina Panther’s Bank of America Stadium

In another photo shoot for Rough Notes, we were invited to Charlotte, NC in 1998 to do a photo shoot with Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Panthers, and the head of the agency that wrote the construction insurance policy for the stadium. At that time, the stadium was named Ericsson Stadium and it was the newest stadium in the NFL. We worked around players and coaches to get our photographs. We had strict instructions not to step onto the playing field. Mr. Richardson was allowed on the field, but the photographer, the art director, and the equipment were not to touch the grass! It was a fun day.

The crazy border agent in Toronto

In 1999, one of my photographers, Phil Smith, and I were traveling to Toronto to do a photo shoot. We had been to Canada before and knew that we would have to go through customs and they may search through all of the equipment we had with us. This was before we were shooting digital photography. Phil was very protective of his equipment, especially lights, camera lenses and film. We encountered a short Irish lady who was bound and determined she was going to search every piece of equipment we were bringing into the country for the day. Phil is a jovial type, but she was in no mood for a funny American trying to keep her from putting her hands all over his stuff. She finally announced that she had half a mind to impound all of the equipment and detain us. We tried to negotiate with her, but she was digging in her heels. She demanded to see a list of all of the equipment we were using, including serial numbers, and the countries where they were manufactured. Phil just started laughing, which further irritated her. She finally had had enough and told us to just pack it all up and to be on our way. Phil began to thank her again and again. She was not amused. "Get out before I change my mind!” she exclaimed. We heeded her advice!

Citizens Energy Group Deep Rock Tunnel Project

I spent a morning in a tunnel 250 feet below Indianapolis. The Deep Rock Tunnel Connector is carved out of the bedrock to handle combined sewer overflow during heavy rains. The network of tunnels cover 28 miles. I was sent there to get photos for a story on the construction workers who were pouring the concrete to form the 18’ diameter of the tunnel. To get to where I needed to be, I was lowered in a cage down a shaft 250’ below the surface. Once there, I had to catch a small train to get to the worksite. They told me every now and then the lights would go out and I should just stay put and turn my flashlight on. "How long do the lights typically stay off?” I asked. "About 20 minutes or so!” It was a unique experience.

World Trade Tower 2 – NYC

I visited the World Trade complex several times before the 9/11 attacks. I was in Tower 2 about one year prior to the attacks. I remember when I was leaving that a fire alarm set off. A fire truck rolled up beside us and firefighters made their way into the building. The guy I was with said it happened several times a day. I never gave it much thought at the time, but I have thought about those firefighters every 9/11 since then.

Northern State Prison, Newark, NJ

I was on a business trip to New York and had flown into Newark Airport late on Sunday night. It was a dark and rainy night and I could see my hotel from the interstate, but could not figure out how to get on the access road that would take me there. I finally found an access road, but soon saw a sign that I should turn around. I drove on, knowing that my hotel was just down the street. I passed another sign that said I had just entered the Northern State Prison and that I was being watched. Any sudden movement outside my car could cause a guard to fire a warning shot! I turned the car around and drove out as quick as I could.

Setting off the steam clock at the ISM during the RCA Tennis Championships

In 2003, we were doing a photo shoot at the Indiana State Museum that included several artifacts that had to be photographed after the museum closed. As we were working during the night, the RCA Tennis Championships were taking place just across the canal from the museum. At one point in the night, the automatic timer began to shut the lights off, so we asked the museum staff to turn them back on. Apparently in the process, it also turned on the famous steam clock outside the museum. Every 15 minutes, the clock would whistle a tune which was annoying the tennis pros trying to concentrate on their game. We were told to turn out the lights and the clock so they could finish their tennis match.

Starbucks headquarters – Seattle, WA

I have been in a lot of historic buildings, but the Starbucks headquarters was very unique. It was built in 1912 and had a very eclectic feel to it. It was originally occupied by Sears and Roebuck as their western fulfillment center for the western states. In 1997, Starbucks moved into the building and renovated it to be their headquarters. In 2000, we were sent to shoot photos of the Chief Risk Officer. Within a year, a major earthquake damaged a good portion of the building.

East End Tunnel – Louisville, KY

In an effort to connect I-265 across the Ohio River, two tunnels were blasted under an historic neighborhood through which the highway would travel. I was called in to get photos of the construction process, which was three years in the making. The approaches and the highway were literally blasted from the bedrock. These were then shored up with shotcrete sprayed onto the ceiling and walls before a concrete form was rolled into the tunnels to form the permanent walls.

Bottom of the old Erie Stone quarry in Bluffton, Indiana.

One more dirty construction site caught my attention. I grew up near it and passed by it often. I had always wanted to go to the bottom. In 2010, we were sent on a photo shoot of the old Erie Stone quarry (that has since been purchased by IMI) to get photos for their web site. My steel-toed boots never felt so good as they did standing on the bottom of that canyon, sheer limestone cliffs all around me.

These are just a few of the amazing places I have been in 20 years. It is fun to reflect back on them and be reminded of just how far I have come as a business owner and we have come as a small business.